By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter
Qatar’s trade surplus widened 8% year-on-year (y-o-y) to QR107.03bn in the first quarter of this year with exports growing faster than imports.
The hydrocarbon-abundant county’s total exports (valued free-on-board) swelled 7% to QR129.82bn, according to Qatar Statistics Authority figures.
The exports of domestic products grew 7% to QR128.84bn; while re-exports were down 15% to QR972mn.
Exports of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons surged 9% to QR84.96bn; even as those of crude petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals fell 14% to QR22.49bn and non-crude products by 10% to QR6.29bn.
The main export markets were Japan, South Korea and China.
Total imports (valued at cost insurance and freight) grew 4% y-o-y to QR22.79bn. Imports of passenger motor cars rose 1% to QR2.18bn; aircraft spare parts by 72% to QR1.16bn and telephone sets and mobiles by 17% to QR399mn.
The US, China, the UAE, Japan and Germany were among the top five destinations from where Qatar imported merchandise goods. Washington accounted for 11% of Doha’s imports, followed by China and the UAE with a share of 9% each.
Imports from the US grew 15% to QR2.54bn, China by 3% to QR2.14bn, the UAE by 25% to QR2.06bn and Germany by 16% to QR1.51bn; while this from Japan fell about 1% to QR1.88bn.
